Two part housing for an electrical lamp assembly

ABSTRACT

One part of a two part electric lamp housing has an aperture in a longitudinally extending side wall of the one housing part, and also has a wall bounding the aperture, the wall having projections, one of which is resilient, for mounting the housing in an aperture of a mounting panel and also for frictionally receiving a lens over the housing aperture.

6 United States Patent 1191 [111 3,737,656 Plana 1 June 5, 1973 54] TWO PART HOUSING FOR AN 2,812,423 11/1957 ELECTRICAL LAMP ASSEMBLY [75] inventor: Roberto Plana, Barcelona, Spain 57:02 6/1966 1,978,934 10/1934 [73] Assignee: AMP Incorporated, Harrisburg, Pa.

Primary ExaminerDonald O. Woodie] Flled? P 20, 1971 Assistant Examiner-Daniel M. Yasich [21] APPL NOJ 182,932 Att0rneyWilliam J. Keating, Ronald D. Grefe,

Gerald K. Kita et al.

30 Fr A l't'o Pior'tDta o eign pp ica l n r l y a ABSTRACT Oct. 27, 1970 Spain ..l62742 One part of a two art electric lam housm has an P P 8 [52] U 8 Cl 240/151 240/8 16 340/381 aperture in a longitudinally extending side wall of the [51] l7/00' Fzlv 21/00 one housing part, and also has a wall bounding the [58] Fie'ld p 24077 1 R 8 l4 aperture, the wall having projections, one of which is 240/8 resilient, for mounting the housing in an aperture of a mounting panel and also for frictionally receiving a Reierences Cited lens over the housing aperture.

UNITED STATES PATENTS 4 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures 2,980,791 4/1961 Schumacher ..240/8.14

T NT -m 5191a 7, 55

' sum 3 OF 3 I a M F2 5 TWO PART HOUSING FOR AN ELECTRICAL LAMP ASSEMBLY This invention relates to an electrical lamp assembly.

In our copending application Ser. No. 170,800, filed Aug. II, 1971, there is described and claimed an electrical lamp assembly having a housing of electrically insulating material, in which the housing is formed of two identical housing halves.

In the assembly described in this earlier-application the junction between the two housing halves extends longitudinally of the housing and a lens is mounted on the housing at one end thereof. The housing has laterally extending wings which serve to secure the assembly in a hole in a panel with the longitudinal axis of the housing extending perpendicular to the plane of the panel.

Often however for reasons of lack of space, it is necessary to mount an electrical lamp assembly on a panel with the longitudinal axis of a housing of the assembly extending parallel to the plane of the panel.

The present invention is an electrical lamp assembly having a housing of electrically insulating material, the housing being formed of two elongate mating housing parts extending longitudinally of the housing, and one of the housing parts having an aperture provided in a longitudinally extending side of the one housing part.

One embodiment of an assembly in accordance with this invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the assembly and a panel on which the assembly is to be mounted;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation showing the assembly mounted on the panel of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of one housing half of the assemy;

FIG. 4 is a side elevation of the housing half of FIG.

FIG. 5 is an end elevation of the housing half of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a section on line VI-VI of FIG. 3;

FIG. 7 is a view similar to FIG. 4 but showing the other housing half of the assembly; and

FIG. 8 is a view similar to FIG. 6 but showing a section of the other housing half.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the assembly includes a housing formed of two mated moulded plastics material housing parts 1 and 2, the junction 3 between the two parts 1 and 2 extending longitudinally of the housing. The housing part 1 is identical to the housing halves described in our earlier application described above. With reference to FIGS. 3 to 8, each housing part 1, 2 has a resilient arm 5 having a head 5a and diametrically opposed slot 6 (FIGS. 6 and 8), the head 5a of each housing part being arranged to engage in the slot 6 of the other housing part. Each housing part 1, 2 is also formed with two bosses l0 and two holes 11 (see particularly FIG. 3) disposed adjacent the four corners of the mating face or junction 3, the bosses 10 of each housing part being arranged to mate with the holes 11 of the other housing part. A longitudinal rib 12 and a recess 13 are provided at the junction 3 of each housing part 1, 2, the rib 12 of each housing part being arranged to engage in the recess 13 of the other housing part.

The right-hand end portion (as seen in FIGS. 4 and 7, respectively) of the housing part 1 is identical to that of the housing part 2 and together they receive and retain a pair of terminals and a resistor (neither of which is shown).

The left-hand end portion of the housing part 1 is formed generally as an open-ended semi-circular section channel, the arm 5 extending from the slot 6 provided in the channel side. The housing part 1 has a pair of wings 7 (one of which can be seen in FIGS. 1, 2 and 7) adjacent the open end of the channel. The wings 7 serve no purpose as far as the present invention is concerned but, as mentioned above, they are used in carrying out the invention of our earlier application.

The left-hand end portion of the housing part 2 is somewhat similar to that of the housing part 1 but the end of the channel is closed by a transverse wall 14 and the bottom of the channel has been removed to form a rectangular cross-section aperture 16 bounded by a wall 15 extending transversely away from the longitudinal axis of the housing. Two longitudinally extending shoulders 17 are provided at the base of the wall 15, on which shoulders a panel 18 (FIGS. 1 and 2) engages when the assembly is mounted on the panel 18, as described hereinafter.

. The end portion of the wall 15 which is coplanar with the wall 14 is formed with an outwardly extending projection 19 having a stepped inwardly directed surface 20 and a sloping outwardly directed surface 21. The longitudinally extending portions of the wall 15 are formed at their ends remote from the wall 14, with out, wardly extending projections 22 having sloping inwardly directed surfaces 23.

To mount the assembled housing parts 1 and 2 on the panel 18, a suitably sized aperture 24 is provided in the panel 18,'the aperture 24 being sized to receive the wall 15 defining the apertue 16. The projections 22 are passed through the aperture 24 in the panel 18, and the assembly then urged towards the panel 18 such that the panel 18 engages the sloping surface 21 of the projection 19. The projection 19 is resiliently deformed to pass through the aperture 24 in the panel 18, and then returns to its original shape to secure the assembly in the aperture 24 in the panel 18 (FIG. 2). The stepped surface 20 of the projections 19 enables the assembly to be mounted on either of two difi'erent thickness panels, the aperture in the panel being appropriately sized such that one of the step portions of the surface 20 of the projections 19 engages the panel.

The panel 18 is thus gripped between one of the step portions of the surface 20 of the projection 19 and the projections 22 positioned on one side of the panel 18, and the shoulders 17 positioned on the other side of the panel 18 (FIG. 2).

A lens 25 (FIGS. 1 and 2) can then be mounted over the aperture 16 of the housing part 2, the lens 25 being retained in position by frictional engagement with the projections 19 and 22 (FIG. 2).

I claim:

1. A housing for an electrical lamp assembly, said housing being formed of electrically insulating material and comprising two elongated longitudinal mating housing parts, one of said housing parts adapted to receive a light-emitting lamp therebetween and the other of the housing parts having an aperture provided in a longitudinally extending side of said other of the housing parts for permitting the passage of light therethrough, wall means extending transversely away from the longitudinal axis of the housing and bounding said aperture, said wall means having end portions which 3. A housing as set forth in claim I wherein the projection on one wall end portion has a stepped inwardly directed surface and wherein there are two projections on' the opposite wall end portion, the two projections having'slopingly inwardly directed surfaces.

4. A housing as set forth in claim 1 further comprising a lens mounted over said aperture in said other of the housing parts by frictional engagement with the projections. 

1. A housing for an electrical lamp assembly, said housing being formed of electrically insulating material and comprising two elongated longitudinal mating housing parts, one of said housing parts adapted to receive a light-emitting lamp therebetween and the other of the housing parts having an aperture provided in a longitudinally extending side of said other of the housing parts for permitting the passage of light therethrough, wall means extending transversely away from the longitudinal axis of the housing and bounding said aperture, said wall means having end portions which carry outwardly extending projections for engagement with a surface of a panel to secure the housing to the panel, and shoulder means on by said other of the housing parts for engagement with the opposite surface of the panel.
 2. A housing as set forth in claim 1 wherein said aperture is rectangUlar in cross section and wherein said shoulder means comprises two longitudinally extending shoulders disposed on the same housing part as said projections.
 3. A housing as set forth in claim 1 wherein the projection on one wall end portion has a stepped inwardly directed surface and wherein there are two projections on the opposite wall end portion, the two projections having slopingly inwardly directed surfaces.
 4. A housing as set forth in claim 1 further comprising a lens mounted over said aperture in said other of the housing parts by frictional engagement with the projections. 